One-half of the Adventures on Trains creators and the writer of several other excellent children’s books, M.G. Leonard now brings us Hunt for the Golden Scarab. It’s an exciting and thoughtful thriller for middle-grade readers.
Being a UK-based GeekDad I often find myself loving books that aren’t readily available in the US, where most of our lovely readers reside. The book currently features in a prominent campaign by the UK’s leading bookseller chain and I can see why they think it should sell bucketloads. Wherever you are in the world, I wholeheartedly recommend you pick it up.
Hunt for the Golden Scarab is beautifully illustrated with black and white drawings by Manuel Sumberac.
What Is Hunt for the Golden Scarab?
Sim and his mum, Calli, live in an apartment attached to a dusty museum. It’s the first place they’ve stayed for any length of time. Sim goes to school, has made some friends, and is finally living something close to a normal life.
This all changes when large and violent strangers turn up, forcing Sim and his mum to hide in a part of the museum Sim has never seen before. The reason he’s never been there? His mum can travel back in time.
Sim and Calli flee from the museum, taking refuge with Sim’s uncle Emmett. Sim didn’t know the existence of Emmett until he arrived at his uncle’s apartment. Here, Sim also meets Jeopardy, his cousin.
Emmett and Cali are “Time Keys.” People who can use music to travel through magic portals that lead back in time. The pair are unsanctioned by the “Time Council;” a body that has nominal control of the world’s time travelers. The Time Council has now been taken over by hardliners who want to use their power to dominate the other Time Keys.
Sim and Jeopardy discover, that the Time Council is searching for the Golden Scarab of Nefertiti; something thought to give its bearer an unnaturally long life. The pair, along with Calli and Emmett, must head to Egypt to stop the council from gaining control of the Scarab. Its secrets may lie in the 21st century, but perhaps they’ll need to travel to the time of Howard Carter, or possibly back to the time of Tutankhamun himself.
Why Read Hunt for the Golden Scarab?
This is an excellently paced children’s novel filled with action and history. It’s a great blend of ideas – how its time travel works, and facts – the book is stuffed full of information about the history of Egypt and what life was like in the ancient kingdom of the Pharaohs.
Sim and Jeopardy are great characters, around which everything else is built. Sim’s mum, a kickass martial arts expert, makes a wonderful guardian of the pair. Her duplicitous brother, Emmett, not so much. Sim’s shadowy can’t-be-trusted uncle adds an interesting “enemy within” foil to the narrative.
Through Emmett, M.G. Leonard adds shades of grey. He’s not an out-and-out baddie but he is selfish; even to the point of selling out his family if it gets him what he wants. He’s weak and cowardly and therefore a more subtle villain than the more traditional wrongdoers that make up the Time Council.
Hunt for the Golden Scarab has interesting things to say about historical artifacts and their acquisition by colonialists during earlier times. It provokes a nuanced conversation about preservation versus the cultural belonging of relics from antiquity. I very much enjoyed Sim and Jeopardy’s respect for the people and objects they found on their travels.
Overall, Hunt for the Golden Scarab is classic children’s adventure fiction that engages throughout. There’s a least one more book to come, The Legend of Viking Thunder but it’s a series that could run and run. If the books are all as good as this, let’s hope the Time Keys can explore for many more volumes!
If you would like to pick up a copy of Hunt for the Golden Scarab you can do so here, in the US, and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
